Thursday, March 31, 2011

St Stephen the Wonderworker of Mar Saba (725-794) monk

Trained by his uncle

Although unbearded men were
not admitted to the community of St Sabas, Stephen, being the nephew of
St John of Damascus, one of the most learned men of his day, was
received when he was only ten and trained under his uncle's guidance for
the next fifteen years.

Servant of the community of Mar Saba

When John
died in 749, Stephen, then 24, was ordained and began an eight-year
period of service to the community. He was guest-master, cantor,
dispenser and special guestmaster to those received into the igumen's
quarters. Once, while celebrating the eastern rite of the Mass, as
Stephen elevated the Eucharist and recited the words, “Holy things to
the holy”, the monastic cell in which he was celebrating the liturgy was
filled with a brilliant light that emanated from the celebrant himself.
From that occasion onward, whatever he prayed for during the
Eucharistic liturgy was granted. This may be the period during which he
earned the title Wonderworker.

"Do not disturb" notice

However, Stephen sought permission from the igumen Martyrios
to live as a complete hermit. Martyrios suggested a compromise: Stephen
could lead a hermit's life, but should be available to those who needed
counsel. So Stephen placed a note on the door of his cell: "Forgive me,
Fathers, in the name of the Lord, but please do not disturb me, except
on Saturdays and Sundays." So he prayed from Monday to Friday and was
available for spiritual counselling at week-ends.

Complete solitude for fifteen

At the age of
thirty-seven, Stephen went into complete solitude for fifteen years,
three times going into the desert around the Dead Sea to observe Lent.

Lover of animals and people

When he was
fifty-two, Stephen returned to the more relative form of the hermit's
life, and admitted disciples once more. Many came to him for healing. He
was a lover of animals and is portrayed, like St Francis, with his
shoulders and arms covered with birds. The doves, starlings and deer fed
out of his hand. His compassion for the lowly black worms that crawled
through his hermitage prompted him to gather them into a spot where they
would be safe from being trampled on. His biographer and disciple
Leontius wrote about Stephen: "Whatever help, spiritual or material, he
was asked to give, he gave. He received and honoured all with the same
kindness. He possessed nothing and lacked nothing. In total poverty he
possessed all things."

His poem on the coming of Islam: Art thou weary, art thou languid?

Towards
the end of his life, Stephen may have experienced persecution from the
Umayyad and Abbasid Islamic dynasties, when many monks of St. Sabas met
their deaths. The events of the time are recorded in Leontius's The Life of St. Stephen the Sabaite. One of Stephen's hymns, Art thou weary, art thou languid?, was sympathetically translated by John Mason Neale in his Hymns for the Eastern Church (1862).
It shows the strength of heart of the monk and disciple who during the
sad days when the Cross was bowing before the Crescent, accepted the way
of his Lord:

Art thou weary, art thou languid,
Art thou sore distressed?
“Come to Me,” saith One, “and coming,
Be at rest.”
Hath He marks to lead me to Him,
If He be my Guide?
In His feet and hands are wound prints
And His side.
Hath He diadem, as monarch,
That His brow adorns?
Yes, a crown in very surety,
But of thorns.
If I find Him, if I follow,
What His guerdon here?
Many a sorrow, many a labor,
Many a tear.
If I still hold closely to Him,
What hath He at last?
Sorrow vanquished, labour ended,
Jordan passed.
If I ask Him to receive me,
Will He say me nay?
Not till earth and not till Heaven
Pass away.
Finding, following, keeping, struggling,
Is He sure to bless?
Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
Answer, Yes!

O
St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before
the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

O
St. Joseph do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me
from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our
Lord; so that having engaged here below your Heavenly power I may offer
my Thanksgiving and Homage to the most Loving of Fathers.

O
St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your
arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart.

Press him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.

The Mayor of Limerick has announced that the proceeds from this
year’s Mayor’s Ball in the city will to go to the local Lourdes Invalid
Fund as well as the local Saint Gabriels’ special school.

Cllr Maria Byrne said, “I'm delighted to be able to support two
special Limerick charities with which I have a long association.”

She
added, “This year will be my twenty year going to Lourdes as a helper
with the Lourdes Pilgrimage and I have been on the board of Saint
Gabriels for the past 13 years.”

The Limerick Pilgrimage to Lourdes has been in existence since the
1930's and takes place every June.

Speaking this week, local Pilgrimage
Director Fr Donal McNamara said “The funds raised will go towards the
costs of bringing in excess of one hundred Invalids to Lourdes.”

He
added, “As well as our invalids, we need to bring a large backup medical
team with us and they take time out of their work for the trip.”

Saint Gabriels' School in Dooradoyle is a registered charity, which
provides a range of education and therapy services to children and young
adults, with physical, intellectual, sensory disabilities and
developmental delay.

The Mayor's Ball takes place in the Strand Hotel in Limerick City on
Friday May 6 with this year's Ball having a sporting theme to represent
Limerick's year as European City of Sport.

Church leaders are believed to be concerned at plans announced
yesterday by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to transfer up to 50 per
cent of its primary schools to other patrons.

According to The Irish Independent, sources close to the
Catholic bishops say that the Minister's target of beginning to transfer
schools next January was too ambitious.

It was announced on Monday
that the Minister had selected an advisory panel to run his proposed
Forum on Patronage and Pluralism which is due to report by the end of
October.

The advisory group will be chaired by John Coolahan, professor
emeritus at NUI Maynooth.

The other members include Dr Caroline Hussey,
former UCD registrar, and Fionnuala Kilfeather, former chief executive
of the National Parents Council (primary).

In a statement, The Iona Institute said it welcomed the forum but
called on the Minister “to respect the autonomy of whatever number of
Catholic and other denominational schools remain after this process is
completed.”

"This means guaranteeing the admissions policy of those schools,
their employment policy, and also that they can teach whatever is
compatible with their beliefs."

Mr Quinn wants to see the first of the schools being transferred by
next January.

Church sources, however, say the Minister was going too
far, too fast.

Over 80 per cent of all primary schools are under the
patronage of the Church.

The minister has said he intends to cut this
figure by 50 per cent.

While they welcomed the forum, Church sources said it was the Church
that first raised the issue of an over-supply of Catholic schools and
that they were finalising a lengthy period of consultation on the
issue.

The Catholic Schools Partnership, which was established by the
Irish Episcopal Conference and the Conference of Religious of Ireland,
is to publish a position paper next week.

The results of its consultation process will be analysed by
representatives from all dioceses at four regional assemblies in June
2011.

Sources say the paper will stress the issue of parental choice
and is likely to call for pilot projects in a small number of areas
where there is felt to be an over-supply of church schools.

"It's not an easy matter to decide which school should close -- there
are also legal issues involved," said one source.

However, a
protracted trial period is unlikely to satisfy the minister who wants
action on this issue quickly.

The forum will look at the practicalities of how transferring or
divesting of patronage should operate for individual primary schools in
communities where this is appropriate.

They will advise the Minister on
how best it can be ensured that the system provides a sufficiently
diverse number and range of primary schools catering for all religions
and none.

Prof Coolahan said the issue of which schools would be moved from Catholic control could be decided by ballots of parents.

Gaelscoileanna, the voluntary organisation, said it hoped the forum
would provide an opportunity to tackle the issues in relation to the
provision of Irish-medium education.

Ethnic profiling is a form of racial discrimination facilitated by
the Irish state, according to a report published by the Migrant Rights
Centre Ireland (MRCI) this week.

This issue was also addressed last Friday when the High Court ruled
that Section 12 of the Immigration Act is unconstitutional. Section 12
makes it a criminal offence for ‘non-nationals’ not to produce ID on
demand.

“Irish citizens are not required to carry ID, yet Irish immigration
legislation states that ‘non-nationals’ have to present ID on demand.

Gardaí and Immigration Officers are clearly making judgements on who to
ask for ID on the basis of colour, accent and appearance and this is
recognised internationally as discriminatory,” said Siobhán O’Donoghue,
MRCI director.

She welcomed the court ruling and said that the law now needs to be
changed to remove Section 12.

MRCI wants to meet with the Gardaí to
discuss the issue, and states the Garda Ombudsman also has a role to
play.

The report Singled Out gives insights into the treatment of
black and ethnic minority communities travelling to and from Northern
Ireland and in police, immigration and security checks in the Republic.

Researchers for the report spent time observing border areas and
checkpoints and noted how people of visible ethnic origin are the focus
of discriminatory checks on trains, buses and on the street.

For example, in the report, one person describes how he was forcibly
removed from a train and detained in a police cell despite having photo
ID and proof of his legal status.

Others spoke about their fears for
children as they grow up under a constant cloud of suspicion that they
have done something wrong.

“There will be second and third generation Irish citizens and it will
be divisive; it will cause bigger problems down the road,” said another
victim of ethnic profiling.

Members of the public interviewed for the research assumed that people being checked, were “illegal.”

Ms O’ Donoghue, MRCI, said, “International research now recognises
that ethnic profiling, apart from fuelling racism, is an inefficient and
ineffective use of public resources. Checks and inspections should
only be done on the basis of reasonable suspicion and not on the colour
of a person’s skin, accent or appearance.”

Avila Kilmurray,
Director of the Community Foundation Northern Ireland said that ethnic
profiling is having a detrimental impact on the integration of immigrant
families and fuelling racism towards black and ethnic minorities.

It
is difficult to live with the constant assumption of guilt and this
creates feelings of alienation.

Ethnic profiling involves
targeting people for the purposes of security and public safety while
relying on stereotypes about ethnicity such as colour, nationality, and
religion rather than on reasonable suspicion.

In 2009, the UN Human
Rights Committee found that police identity checks motivated by race or
ethnicity run counter to the international human right to
non-discrimination.

The Catholic Church plans to go ahead with
plans to introduce a new missal (the text used for Mass) despite
protests from the Association of Catholic Priests and the fact that
Irish priests seems to think their parishioners too stupid to understand
the new text.

The Association feels that the new text is sexist and cumbersome. The text currently used in Ireland dates back to 1975.

A Daily Telegraph blogger David Thompson believes
that the associations "whinge" implies that "their parishioners aren't
bright enough to grasp the new texts" which are more loyal to the
original Latin texts.

Thompson asked whether the priests of Ireland are in any position to
"lecture the Church on standards of are miserably low in Ireland".
In
the Association's statement they said "While the bishops listened to
our concerns, we regret to say that, judging by their response,they
failed to take on board what we said.”

The association said that the new texts would have "serious repercussions for parishes”.

Their statement also said that the new texts might be unfair to the female followers of the Church.

It said
"We
fear that the continued use of sexist language with its use of man, men
and brothers as generic terms will alienate some women and men."

The new texts will come into effect in November on the first Sunday of Advent.

A recent media report has sparked speculation
that St. Patrick’s Seminary, Maynooth may close following the Apostolic
Visitation undertaken by New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan in recent
months.

It has been suggested in the Irish Catholic newspaper
that Dolan will recommend that Pope Benedict XVI move all Irish
seminaries to a restructured Pontifical Irish College in Rome.

St.
Patrick’s Seminary in Maynooth, Co. Kildare was first established in
1795 and has been preparing Irishmen for the priesthood for over 200
years.

The seminary has been under pressure in recent months however to
fill teaching vacancies made by retired theology professors, with the Irish Catholic
pointing out that the faculty of Canon Law only has one full-time
member, and the faculty of philosophy has no full-time staff.

Archbishop
Dolan is said to believe that the low number of seminarians makes the
college’s future unsustainable.

Archbishop
Dolan visited Maynooth at the behest of Pope Benedict XVI, who ordered a
wide-ranging probe into how abuse cases were handled by the Catholic
Church in Ireland.

The delegation also included Boston Archbishop
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who traveled to Dublin.

During
his stay Archbishop Dolan requested copies of moral theology lectures,
class notes, and presentations made to students, in order to assess the
suitability of the content.

It is believed that he found the content not
sufficiently orthodox for future priests, and feels that the move to
the Irish College would address these issues.

In
response to the speculation, however, President of St. Patrick’s
College, Monsignor Hugh Connolly, denied that there was any truth to the
rumors, claiming that the reports were “without foundation,” and adding
that “The media outlet leading with this incorrect story was sent a
reply from us yesterday and its absence from the published copy is
disappointing and damaging.”

Monsignor
Connolly went on to say, “There are 72 men studying for the priesthood
in Maynooth, making us the largest seminary on these islands and one of
the largest in Europe… Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth is a vibrant
centre of seminary formation and theological research.”

Despite
the speculation that the visitations did not go well, he insisted that
they were a positive experience, saying, “Maynooth is confident of its
contribution to the future of the Church in Ireland. The Apostolic
Visitation to the seminary was a positive and affirming experience for
the whole College community. It generated a spirit of hope and
enthusiasm which will no doubt play a significant part in the renewal of
the Church in our country.”

The Apostolic visitors are expected to submit their reports along with their recommendations to the Pope in the coming months.

THE DECISION by Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to establish a
Forum on Patronage and Pluralism is welcome.

The need for some kind of
forum to tease out these issues has been a long standing demand of the
Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) but former education
ministers, Batt O’Keeffe and Mary Coughlan, appeared reluctant to
establish it. Mr Quinn maintains it will not be a talking shop.

Its
task, he says, will be to work out the practicalities of how
transfer/divesting can be advanced to ensure that demands for diversity
of patronage can be identified and met.

The debate on patronage
was triggered three years ago when the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid
Martin acknowledged the church was over-represented in Irish education.

At the time, Dr Martin suggested that perhaps one in four Catholic
schools could be divested.

But he has not been prescriptive about the
degree of control the church should retain or divest in Irish education.

It
is by no means certain if his open-minded approach is shared by other
members of the hierarchy.

Catholic Church leaders are reported as being
“shocked’’ by suggestions from Mr Quinn that some 50 per cent of 3,000
primary schools under the church’s control could be divested.

There are
indications that a forthcoming position paper from the Catholic Schools
Partnership – established by the Episcopal Conference and the Conference
of Religious in Ireland – may adopt a less accommodating stance than
that signalled by Dr Martin.

It is to be hoped that the church
will not retreat to the trenches.

The facts are as outlined by Mr Quinn
in an interview on Today FM yesterday.

A situation where the church
controls almost 90 per cent of primary schools does not reflect the
“contours of modern Ireland’’.

In today’s schools, the church cannot
even be certain that the teacher charged with preparing his pupils for
the sacraments shares the Catholic faith.

In the debate to come,
the views of parents must take centre stage. An Irish Times poll last
year found that 61 per cent of people favour transferring control of
primary schools from the Catholic Church to the State.

It may be that
other surveys and plebiscites are required among local communities to
assess fully local preferences.

What is clear is that the existing
system of patronage is outmoded and requires change.

As the INTO has
noted, the forum should help to shape a new future for primary education
in Ireland.

RITE AND REASON:THE CENSUS looms and included in it
we have Question 12, which deals with religion.

“What is your
religion?” it asks boldly, assuming everyone has one.

It lists the
options: Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Islam, Presbyterian,
Orthodox; it then gives a space, two rows of boxes, for “Other, write in
your religion.”

Then, under these two rows of boxes, comes option 7:
“No religion.”

One would have thought a more sensible way of
framing the question might have been to start by asking: “Do you have a
religion?”

This could have been followed by a number of options for
those marking the Yes box whereas those opting for No would go straight
to the next question.

But this suggestion, made by the Humanist
Association of Ireland (HAI) following an invitation by the Central
Statistics Office (CSO) for suggestions regarding possible improvements
in the census, was rejected on the basis it would make historical
comparisons difficult.

This must certainly mean not many suggestions
would be adopted.

Anyone who has spent time looking at the 1911
census on the web will tell you how fascinating and absorbing this can
be.

But quite apart from simple statistics and general interest, the
census performs an important and valuable function: it provides
information that is used to help plan for the future.

As it says on the
census website: “When you fill in your census form on Sunday, April
10th, you’re giving us the information we need now to understand what
Ireland needs for the future.”

What information is this and how will it
be used? One piece of information must be that of religion.

And how it
might be used must surely be in providing appropriate schools for the
future.

The vast majority of primary schools in this country are
run by one or other church, mainly Roman Catholic.

Archbishop Martin has
said this should change to reflect the Ireland of today.

In order to
plan what sort of schools are most appropriate for the future, it would
be useful to have an accurate picture regarding the population’s
religion, or lack of it.

And so we have question 12 on the census form.
But will this work?

People who come from a religious background
but no longer practise any religion and have no religious belief would
most likely answer No to the question “Do you have a religion?”

But when
asked “What is your religion?”, followed by a series of options
including the one the person was born into, that person may tick the box
of the religion they were brought up in but no longer practise.

But
if people are in doubt, won’t they be helped by their enumerator, the
person hired to distribute and collect the forms and answer questions
about the census?

Well, they’ll be helped all right; but on the question
of religion the enumerators have been instructed to guide people to
fill in the form to reflect their background rather than their current
position.

How does this help us plan for Ireland’s future?

Now I
know people’s religion is not the only determining factor when it comes
to schools.

Many religious parents send their children to Educate
Together schools because they believe it’s better than separating
children.

Some non-religious parents send their children to religious
schools for academic or other reasons.

Many would argue that a good “all
children together” education system should be a basic right.

Having
said this, it would seem that the more people who truthfully state on
their census form that they have no religion, the stronger the argument
for a shift towards a more secular approach to education.

And it is
likely that the way the question is framed will not deliver as accurate a
result as it should.

I’ll use an analogy: imagine a survey on car
ownership. The question “Do you have a car?” is not asked; the survey
goes straight to “What type of car do you have?” And then, someone who
has no car is encouraged to say they have a Morris Minor because, way
back, it was the traditional family car. What use would this information
be?

The HAI is running an awareness campaign with advertisements
on Dart carriages to make this point.

The message is simple: if you
don’t practise any religion, then mark the “No Religion” box.

It’s
important.

Brian Whiteside is director of the Humanist Association of Ireland. Census day is April 10th

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

St John of the Ladder (d. 649) abbot on Mt Sinai and ascetical writer

Little is
known for definite about John's early life. He was born in Palestine.

Some say that he became a monk on Mt Sinai at the age of sixteen and
afterwards lived as a solitary in different places in the Arabian
Desert.

Others say he was married in early life and became a monk on the
death of his wife and that after some years in community, he then
became a hermit coming together with other hermits to church on Saturday
and Sunday.

Abbot of Mt Sinai

John was already seventy when he was made abbot of Sinai, and four years later he resigned to prepare in solitude for his death.

The Ladder to Paradise

John's fame comes mainly from a work he wrote that was much read in East and West entitled The Ladder to Paradise.

This
work treats of the way to union with God and moral perfection to be
reached by a ladder of the following thirty "rungs" into which the book
is divided:

Renunciation of the world

Detachment

Exile

Obedience

Penitence

Remembrance of death

Mourning

Placidity and meekness: dealing with anger

Malice

Slander

Talkativeness and silence

Falsehood

Despondency

Gluttony

Chastity

Avarice

Poverty

Insensitivity

Sleep, prayer and the singing of psalms in church

Alertness

Unmanly fears

Vainglory

Pride

Meekness, simplicity, guilelessness, and wickedness

Humility

Discernment

Stillness

Prayer

Dispassion (Apatheia, or "passive disinterestedness")

Faith, hope, and love

The ladder as inspiration and emblem

The idea
of the spiritual life as a ladder has inspired artists to develop
interesting illustrations to motivate those on the spiritual journey and
as an emblem of the saint himself.

O
St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before
the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

O
St. Joseph do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me
from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our
Lord; so that having engaged here below your Heavenly power I may offer
my Thanksgiving and Homage to the most Loving of Fathers.

O
St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your
arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart.

Press him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.

The Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island was built upon and prospered
because of the faith, sacrifices and contributions of many ethnic
communities, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin explained during a recent symposium
entitled, “Immigrants and Immigration in the 21st Century,”at Brown
University.

According the U.S. Census Bureau, 133, 000 Rhode Island residents are
foreign-born. According to the Pew Center, 20,000-30,000 of the state’s
foreign-born residents are unauthorized immigrants.

Brown University
offered an opportunity for researchers, faith leaders and policy makers
to come together as a community to discuss local views and attitudes
toward immigrants and immigration policy in the state in hopes to work
toward a greater awareness of the issue.

The daylong conference focused immigration issues inspired by a new
survey conducted by the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and
American Institutions, and the John Hazen White Public Opinion
Laboratory at Brown.

The survey reflected the views of Rhode Islanders
on issues of immigration in their community and beyond.

Bishop Tobin served as the keynote speaker for the conference,
offering his reflections on the issue. He emphasized that the Catholic
Church has been concerned with the immigration question and responding
to the needs of the immigrant community for a long time and added that
the Church has continued to be blessed and enriched by the immigrant
community.

“Throughout its history in our nation and in this community the
Church has welcomed and ministered to the historic immigration of these
cultures,” he said. “Despite the various languages, cultures and
traditions of these very diverse immigrant groups, they were united by a
common Christian faith and the desire to improve their lives and
contribute to the well-being of their new home in the United States and
the State of Rhode Island.”

The bishop explained that the church's dedication to the immigrant
community is an act of faith grounded in several important fundamental
principles, including: the dignity of each and every human person as
created in the image and likeness of God; the teachings and example of
Jesus Christ; the Christian principle that recognizes the strength and
value of unity in diversity; and the wide-ranging testimony of the
Sacred Scripture and teaching tradition of the church.

The bishop referred to the Statement of the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops, entitled “Welcoming the Stranger Among Us,” to help
summarize the Catholic views relative to immigration.

“Without condoning undocumented migration, the church supports the
human rights of all people and offers them pastoral care, education and
social services, no matter what the circumstances of entry into this
country, and it works for the human dignity of all - especially those
who find themselves in desperate circumstances,” Bishop Tobin shared.

“We also recognize and assert that all human persons, created as they
are in the image of God, possess a fundamental dignity that gives rise
to a more compelling claim to the conditions worthy of human life.”

Alexandra Filindra, researcher at the Taubman Center at Brown
University expressed the important need to invite the faith leaders of
the community to the symposium.

“We really need to hear what Bishop Tobin and the faith leaders have
to say because it is very divisive issue in our state,” Filindra said.
“I think that the Bishop’s message was very important. We need to follow
the principled ways that have been set out for us on this issue.”

Lucy Boltz, a junior at Brown University, said that it was a great
idea to involve policy makers, religious figures and the community in
the symposium to get a variety of perspectives on the issue and to
promote immigration reform that is good for the immigrants and the
United States.

“We are trying to work against the narrative of hate,” said Boltz, an
Ethnic Studies major from Southern California. "There are skewed views
as to how many undocumented immigrants there are. The more information
people have about immigrants and what they have contributed to the
state, the better off we will be."

As the debate on immigration continues, Bishop Tobin expressed the
need for fair, effective and comprehensive immigration reform and
encouraged respectful and productive discourse, avoiding stereotyping of
either side.

“The footprints of the historic immigrant Church in this community,
as they are throughout our nation, are all around us,” he said.

“The
Church continues to welcome, work with and be blessed by the immigrants
coming to our nation and state. It is a phenomenon we shouldn't fear or
reject, but rather welcome and embrace.”

The president of the Catholic Medical Association
in the UK believes that euthanasia is quite widely practised in the
country's National Health Service in an unofficial way, said a report in
the Independent Catholic News.

Dr Clare Walker explained how she is regularly contacted by
distressed health care professionals and managers who describe their
experience of witnessing repeated instances of unofficial, active
euthanasia in their local areas.

"The standards of medical ethics and of interpretation of existing
legislation appear to vary greatly around the country and from one
organisation to the next, even in the same local area," said Dr Walker.

One development that has enabled this to happen is the adoption of
the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), developed in Liverpool in the 1990s as
a result of collaboration between the Royal Liverpool Hospital and the
Marie Curie hospice.

It aimed to bring
hospice-style palliative care for those living out their last hours in
hospital and its main emphasis was to unite professional support in the
fields of physical treatment, psychological support, and support for
carers and spiritual care.

"There is no reason to be suspicious when the LCP is being used in
appropriate circumstances to a higher standard of care," said Dr Walker.

However, the scheme has now been rolled out across the country, with
the application depending on widely differing levels of ethical
application.

"If it is used out of context, then it could be used to the detriment
of patients. For example, a patient comes into a resuscitation bay and
it is not always clear if a condition is acute and can be treated," said
Dr Walker, who recalls that in some hospitals the LCP has become known
as the Lazarus Care Pathway due to the number of people who have been
put on it inappropriately, are not moribound and subsequently need to be
actively treated.

A report, commissioned by an Independent Unionist MLA, has found that
disadvantaged Catholics in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to go
to university as are disadvantaged Protestants.

The report, commissioned by former Progressive Unionist Party leader and East Belfast MLA Dawn Purvis, who is also chair of the Working Group on Educational Disadvantage among the Protestant Working Class,
found that working class Protestants are also twice as likely their
Catholic counterparts to leave school without any qualifications.

Ms Purvis, who established the working group, said, “While some
politicians in the Northern Executive may find this difficult or
inconvenient to deal with, the Northern Executive had (sic) an urgent
responsibility to tackle the problem.”

She went on to say that, “The statistics are damning, the facts are
undeniable and the trend clear for all to see. Young Protestant men are
underachieving, they are not going to university, and many leave school
without any qualifications and in an alarming number of cases without
acceptable numeracy, literacy and life skills.”

“The educational system fails them and so do the politicians who control how education is administered.”

Her calls were supported by Dr Peter Shirlow of the Law faculty at
Queens University in Belfast that led the research.

He said,
“Disadvantaged Catholics are twice as likely to attend University as
Protestants. The time for statistical analysis is gone.”

“Many working class Protestants were heavily involved in
manufacturing industry and viewed getting a trade as the main
educational requirement. With the collapse of the labour market this
has changed.”

Entrants are also competing in the “Share the Story” short film
contest. On April 1 contest organizers will announce winners, who may
choose either video equipment packages or all-inclusive travel packages
to World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain.

The entries come from 25 U.S. states and Canada, India, Mexico and Pakistan.

As of Friday afternoon, the People’s Choice vote leader was a video
titled “The Sacrament of Divine Mercy.” It retells a story from the life
of St. John Bosco in which Satan tries to demoralize a priest and his
congregation about the effectiveness of confession.

Another leading video, “The Ten Plagues,” reinterpets the biblical
plagues in a high school setting. The video “Finding John Doe” involves a
troubled girl contemplating suicide, while another, “Morning Star
Family Holy Hour,” describes the Holy Hour at a children’ prayer group
in New York state.

The contest will help create a repository of short films for catechists and the general public, organizers said.

Gabriel Castillo, director of evangelization at St. Theresa’s Church in Sugarland, Texas, praised the contest.

“Now youth groups and teachers will have a safe place to send their
students and peers to get solid Catholic information presented in
creative ways,” she said.

WITH ''optimism and hope'', the Catholic parishioners of Kinglake celebrated the fourth incarnation of their church, St Mary's.

Three times destroyed by fire - due to bushfires in 1926 and 2009, and
arson in 1995 - it has again risen from the ashes, and Melbourne
Archbishop Denis Hart celebrated Mass with parish priest Grant O'Neill
at the inaugural service yesterday.

The Kinglake congregation missed only one Sunday after the devastating
fire of Black Saturday (February 9, 2009) - the next day, when access up
the mountain was closed.

By the following Sunday Father O'Neill had arranged with the owner of
the Kinglake bakery and cafe to hold services in an upstairs room.

Then a portable classroom was set up on the razed church's grounds.

Archbishop Hart said the congregation, part of the Diamond Creek parish,
had shrunk as some parishioners moved away, but for those who remained
the reopening brought ''a great sense of optimism and hope''.

The new church features a glass wall looking out over the valley, and crucifix-shaped stained glass window on the back wall.

While a record number of adults are joining the Catholic Church in
England and Wales, government cutbacks in teacher training will mean
that there are less Religious Education (RE) teachers for Catholic
schools.

From September 2011, funding for RE teachers at British universities is to be cut by 45 per cent.

One college in Middlesex which provides many RE teachers for Catholic
schools in London, says it will only have nine trainee teachers in
September (instead of 18), according to a report in the Tablet.

Oona Stannard from the Catholic Education Service (CES) said the 45
per cent cut was bewildering and unjustified and that all the colleges
providing Catholic RE teachers are being unfairly affected by the
reduction, which will make it harder for Catholic schools to have
properly trained religion teachers.

The cuts come against the background of a controversial decision
taken by the Department of Education in the UK to exclude Religious
Studies from the list of subjects in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), a
new standard-setting exam for schools.

According to the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols,
Religious Studies give young people the opportunity to engage seriously
with the most profound philosophical and ethical dilemmas of today.

“Its deliberate omission from any measure seeking to ensure that
pupils receive a genuinely broad education is indefensible,” he said at a
recent lecture in Guilford Cathedral.

Archbishop Nichols said the study of religion is an invaluable help
in the project of building the common good and self-fulfilment.
“Without this appreciation we are condemned to be endlessly starting
again and, no doubt, repeating mistakes and pursuing blind alleys.”

According to Ms Stannard from CES, demand for Catholic RE teachers is
strong, and some schools have been unable to fill positions. While
there is a general fall in student numbers at secondary level, Catholic
schools are still well supported, especially because of a rising
Catholic immigrant population.

The Catholic Education Service is currently running a campaign
through its website, encouraging members of the public to lobby their
MPs to support an “Early Day Motion 1375” calling on the Government to
“recognise the importance and relevance of religious education by
including it as a core subject in the English Baccalaureate.”

The motion, which was tabled on January 31, currently has sixty-one
sponsors, representing all the major English political parties, three
members of the DUP and a member of the SDLP.

Meanwhile, this Easter, record numbers are joining the Catholic
Church, in English and Welsh dioceses, mainly due to the newly
established “Ordinariate” which makes it easy for Anglicans to join the
Catholic Church, either individually or in groups with their pastors.

4,739 people will be received into the Church from 22 dioceses in
England and Wales. 3,943 will come through the Rite of Election
(conclusion of Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults), and 796 through
the Ordinariate.

Praying for peace in Libya, Pope Benedict XVI has issued a “heartfelt
appeal” to political leaders to begin immediate talks to halt the use
of weapons.

His fear for the safety and security of civilians has grown, as has
his concern about the developments in the armed conflict, he told a
crowd of thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square after the Sunday
Angelus prayers.

Rebel forces backed by France, Britain, Spain and the United States
are challenging forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi.

In times of “high tension,” the Pope said, the need becomes more
urgent to resort to every means of diplomatic action and to support the
“weak signs” of willingness to find “peaceful and lasting solutions.”

He prayed to God for “a return to concord” in Libya and the entire North African region.

The Pope also noted recent episodes of violence in the Middle East.

He asked that those involved privilege the way of dialogue and
reconciliation in the search for “a just and brotherly coexistence.”

Catholic divorcees can still receive Holy
Communion and go to confession as long as they are “not engaged in a
permanent relationship”, the Curia has clarified.

“The official teaching of the Church states that those who are in a
permanent relationship outside the Catholic marriage cannot receive the
sacraments in a licit way.

“A divorced person (whether they divorced willingly or unwillingly)
who is not engaged in a permanent relationship can receive the
sacraments liberally,” a spokesman for the Church told The Sunday Times.

The Church was asked for its comments after certain sections of the
media reported that a 12-point leaflet distributed to households stated
that divorcees would not be permitted to receive the sacraments.

The leaflet was an insert in the monthly magazine Flimkien which is
published by the college of parish priests and distributed to all
households free of charge. It is based on a question-and-answer format.

One of the questions asks whether those who remarry civilly after a
divorce would be able to receive the sacraments. “(Those who believe
this) are definitely misunderstanding. If divorce is introduced, those
who are divorced can only remarry civilly and not in the Church.

“They cannot get married as a sacrament and therefore they cannot go
to confession or Holy Communion anyway. This is because their first
marriage still counts in God’s and the Church’s eyes. Divorce does not
nullify a valid marriage between two Catholics.”

As the Church has clarified, this means such divorcees will still be
able to receive the sacraments as long as they are not in an intimate
relationship with a new partner.

Meanwhile, the Church defen­ded its right to distribute such information to the public in light of the ongoing divorce debate.

“The information given in the referred article falls in line with the
Church’s mission to teach and enlighten, in this case through its own
media,” the Church spokes­man said.

“(The magazine) conveys the view of the Catholic Church on different
aspects of our faith and on Maltese society. As in the case of other
magazines, it is obvious that not all that is published is agreed with
by all readers, but like other magazines, it helps readers to (form) a
diversified opinion on various issues put before them, as befits a
pluralistic society.”

The 12 points in brief

1) If battered wives are granted the right to remarry, so too will their abusive husbands.

2) Although people have a right to marry, there is no such right to
divorce, according to a 1986 judgment of the European Court of Human
Rights.

3) Catholics who vote against divorce are not imposing their values.
They have a right to vote according to what they think is best for
society.

4) The Church allows priests to leave the priesthood and get married
because celibacy is a Church law, not a law of God like the
indissolubility of marriage.

5) Divorce weakens the marriage bond, leading to fewer people getting married.

6) If you do not vote it means you do not care about the family or your children.

7) In all countries with divorce, cohabitation increased, marriage decreased and more people fell below the poverty line.

8) There is nothing wrong with Malta being an exception in the world.
Malta has the most churchgoers. Unlike the US, it does not have the
death penalty. Should those things change too?

9) Divorce increases marital breakdown by 20 per cent. For society’s
benefit, sometimes individuals must suffer. For example, people might
have to give up their land to make space for an airport. All efforts
must be made to reduce their suffering, but the land must be taken for
common good.

10) People who remarry civilly after a divorce cannot receive Holy Communion or go to confession.

11) The Church is against abortion, condoms, sex before marriage and
divorce because these are all negative actions. However, it is in favour
of positive actions.

12) The number of children born out of wedlock increases in countries with divorce because cohabitation increases.